Brownback became the fifth presidential candidate to drop his bid this election cycle.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Not a single vote for president has been cast, but the path to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is already littered with a record tying number of casualties.

On Friday, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, became the fifth declared Presidential hopeful to abandon his White House bid. Brownback’s decision to drop out of the race tied the record set in 2000, when five candidates bowed out before the Iowa caucuses, traditionally the first test of candidate strength.

Of course, this doesn’t take into account candidates who toyed with the idea of running, but never filed papers with the Federal Election Commission.

In 2000, you may remember, the early casualties included former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander; former Cabinet Secretary Elizabeth Dole; then-Ohio Rep. John Kasich, former Vice President Dan Quayle; and then-New Hampshire Sen. Bob Smith.

Well, I am sure glad that some of them dropped out because personally I had no idea that three of them were even running. I certainly can't be the only one that never heard of those three. I've never heard anyone mention them with the exception of some nut on one of these blogs.

A Hillary/Pelosi government would not be a return to the nineties although God knows that would be bad enough. It would be a return to the seventies – government operating against the people rather than for them. The only silver lining might be the complete annihilation of the Democratic party, but that of course requires some intelligence on the part of the electorate – questionable if Hillary was elected in the first place.

In my own humble opinion, I believe this coming presidential election to be the most important of my life time. This current administration has made such a mess of things it will take a very strong and determined leader to even begin to fix things. The last thing this country needs is another religeous extremist. I don't want another president telling people he went to war after praying to God. I don't want another president dividing this country into Patriots and non-patriots when one disagrees with his/her actions. I don't want another president slackig on the job and another tragedy such as 9/11 occurring. Our fore fathers enacted Separation of church and state for a very good reason and we are seeing why today.

You say that a Clinton/Pelosi government would be acting against the people rather than for them, but what the heck do you think the Bush Administration has been doing for the last 6+ years? Wasting our budget surplus, record-breaking deficit, saddling future generations with debt, meaningful tax breaks for only the rich, allowing the middle class to get poorer, doing nothing about healthcare, education, or the environment, and, oh yeah, botching the so-called War on Terror by getting us involved in an unnecessary and poorly managed war in Iraq. I think the questionable intelligence lies among the people that voted for Bush the past two elections and will continue to vote for those who will continue is ill-advised policies.

Sam Brownback believed in teaching creationism in schools as an alternative explanation to evolution. The scary thing is that he wasn't a laughing stock. What must civilized society think of us when a man like this is taken seriously?

At least one of them has the decency to bow out now before adding to more voter confusion. And really, should a religious extremist like him ever been allowed to run?

Now only if Hillary would drop out too, either forced to by having any one (or number) of her past indiscretions brought up, or willingly, that would be a real cause to celebrate. If you think Bush Jr. had a ruinous presidency that only caused debt and want for the American people, you can be assured that the supporter of NAFTA, higher taxes, amnesty for illegals, and a bloated government rife with corruption that would make even Taft blush will make things a hundred fold worse.

I could not have said it better myself. The people who support the current president and his policies and lament the idea of a president from the democratic party, have their heads deeply buried somewhere (but not in the sand).

We do not need another christianist in the White House. We need someone who is level headed enough to keep their beliefs to him(her) self and do the job of leading the country.

And, please no rewriting of history, this country was founded on the principal of freedom of religion and that means any relgion. Our founding fathers were not christianists, in fact most of them had spiritual beliefs but they kept it largely to themselves which is what we all should be doing.